You see the image of Steve Merfeld near the close of every basketball season, revisiting us as one of the ghosts of March Madness past. It’s Bryce Drew, Christian Laettner, Tyus Edney and Merf. The others achieve amazing athletic feats each time we see them. Merf kicks his legs up in the air, pumps his fists and smiles.

A whole lot went into that moment, however. Merfeld coached the 2000-01 Hampton Pirates to a 25-7 record, which wasn’t easy to do with a squad that played seven road games before Christmas. He compiled a 90-56 record in five seasons, which included another NCAA Tournament appearance, and then he did what so many other coaches do: He tried to climb the ladder.

He slipped off. He picked the wrong job at the wrong time, accepting an offer from Evansville at the time the Missouri Valley Conference was entering its strongest period since Larry Finch and Junior Bridgeman were chucking jumpshots around the league. It is a measure of the impression Merfeld made upon his opponents, though, that not one but two hired him to work as an assistant coach after he lost the Evansville job.

On Thursday night, Merfeld, 51, will be on the bench for Creighton, where he has been an assistant under coach Greg McDermott for three seasons, as the No. 16 Bluejays (7-1) play their first true road game at intrastate rival Nebraska (6-1).

Merfeld loves this job. He works with the coach’s son, Doug McDermott, who is a first-team All-American candidate. He is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Creighton program, particularly when McDermott is recruiting or making community appearances. Merfeld wonders, though, if he’ll again get the opportunity to be a head coach — to prove that night in Boise more than a decade ago was no fluke.

It’s a pretty good situation. Creighton is one of the finest programs in Division I. Why not stick with this degree of security?

“I think just the fact — I don’t want to live the rest of my life feeling that we didn’t get it done at Evansville,” Merfeld told Sporting News. “Personally, I know we did everything right, did a good job, just didn’t do a good enough job. I would love to have another shot for my own personal satisfaction — just knowing we could do it again.

“As an assistant, you do a lot of recommendations. I want to get back to being a decision-maker, to taking the input from the assistant coaches and ultimately making the call again.”

We have seen comebacks from coaches who lost their jobs. Paul Hewitt went almost immediately from Georgia Tech to George Mason. Gary Waters has gotten Cleveland State to three NITs and one NCAA Tournament since being dismissed at Rutgers. James Dickey is rebuilding Houston, though it took him nearly a decade to secure enough head coaching job after Texas Tech.

“High-major guys, when they get fired, they get other jobs,” McDermott told Sporting News. “Guys that are mid-major guys are the ones who fall off the face of the Earth.”

Tom Schuberth achieved one of the amazing turnarounds of the past decade, taking over Texas-Pan American when it just about had fallen off the Division I map. The Broncs were 3-24 against Division I opponents in 2005-06 and reached double-digit wins only once in the previous four years. He was 42-45 in three seasons, including 18-13 in his second year, but was fired over a curious personality class with an interim athletics director. He now is associate head coach Jacksonville State, helping James Green to rebuild a forlorn low-major program. In their third year together, the Dragons are 6-2.

Kirk Speraw made four NCAA Tournaments during his 17 seasons at Central Florida, but along the way UCF decided it wanted to upgrade from the Atlantic Sun to Conference USA. Even in the new league, he never was worse than 6-10 and he had three winning seasons in five tries. But he’s now an assistant under Fran McCaffery at Iowa.

There are scores of such stories every year — I call it March Sadness — many with chapters less pleasant than what’s become of Merfeld since he left Evansville. First, Bradley hired him as an assistant and then Creighton.

“I was always very impressed with Steve’s teams at Evansville,” McDermott said. “He just happened to be attempting to build a program in our league at the absolute worst time possible. Everybody in the league knew the quality of the coach he was and the job he was doing.

“He’s a great teacher. I was always impressed with his front line guys, how fundamentally sound they were and their footwork — coming from this guy who’s 5-foot-5 or whatever he is. And obviously he had great relationships with his players. For me, to have someone on staff who’s been a head coach is invaluable. What I’ve found is, a lot of the little fires that pop up never get to my desk. He handles them before they ever become disruptive to my day.”

Thursday’s game at Nebraska will be important to Creighton’s pursuit of a second consecutive NCAA Tournament bid — and probably essential to its maintenance of a top-25 ranking. As silly as the rankings might be, they can keep a program such as Creighton prominently displayed on ESPN television or in national publications and websites.

Merfeld will make his customary contributions in the pursuit of another key win for the Bluejays. When it’s over, if Creighton wins, he’s probably not going to charge to the opposite side of the court and be lifted in the air by one of the players. He’ll walk across and shake hands with the opposing coaches and players.